Soft ball



A. E. FEGAN 7 May 25, 1937.

SOFT BALL Filed Oct. 21

y W; 3 2. "TM" @2 an ,7 W J m m Patented ay 25, 193? when aesassi sor'rcam.

Illinois Application Gctober 21, 1935, Serial No. cases 2 Claims.

) This invention relates to soft balls such as are also known as indoor,pastime or playground balls.

Prior to i924 the most approved soft balls for 5 indoor baseball and thelike comprised an inner section of goat hair compacted into sphericalform and held by a winding of cotton yarn; a

surrounding coating or layer of horse hair also held in shape by awinding of cotton yarn, and anouter cover of leather cut in two parts,suitably stitched together along their abutting margins.- In balls ofthis character, which ranged from twelve to seventeen inches incircumference, the circumference of the inner section or core of afourteen inch ball was substantially eleven and a half inches. Thecircumference of the layer surrounding such core, without the leathercover, was about thirteen and a half or three-quarters inches. Afinished ball of this size weighed eight to nine ounces. In practicaluse, it was-found that this ball was too heavy, and did not have thedesired resiliency.

In order toreduce the weight of such balls and to promote livelieraction, I produced the ball shown and described in my Patent No.1,546,483, July 21, l925.-comprising a core composed of cork and arubber binder, a layer of horse hair and an outer cover. This ball waslighter and livelier than balls theretofore known.

In an endeavor to still further lighten the weight, ,to insure truerflight and increased livelinms, and to avoid softening and distortion ofthe balls heretofore known, I have devised the ball of the presentinvention. Heretofore, a layer of hair, preferably horse hair, locatedbetween the cover and core, had always been deemed 'esshow the interiorconstruction of the ball.

In that embodiment of the invention shown in the drawing, the core ofthe ball is composed of cork orother resilient material In in granularform, the particles being mixed with a suitable binding material ll suchas a liquid rubber cement. Hog-hair I! may be mixed with the cork ll, ifdesired. The mass is pressed into spherical and the several layerspartially turned back to form and is almost as large in diameter as thefinished ball.

The core, after being compressed and dried, is wrapped with wool orcotton yarn 13, or with both wool and cotton yarn, sufficient yarn beingused to thoroughly cover the core. Then the wrapped core is dipped inlatex M which is allowed to dry at room temperature. The dippingpreferably is conducted so that the latex does not impregnate all theyarn, for excess latex adds to the weight of the ball. However, a layerht of latex covers the outer yarn wrappings and adheres to portions ofthe inner wrappings and core so as to bind the whole together.

A cover l5 of leather or other suitable material is stitched to enclosethe internal parts of the ball.

The construction described results in reducing the weight of a ball,twelve inches in circumference, to six ounces, whereas heretofore a ballof the size stated weighed at least six and onehalf ounces. Furthermore,the substitution of a unitary structure made of cork and binder, wrappedin yarn and bound to the core by means of a substance such as latex, forthe cork core and non-adhering horse hair layer of the prior art, hasresulted in obviating the objections due to softening of the hair,dislocation of the core, distortion of shape, and greater weight.

Charges may be made in details of construction without departing fromthe scope of my invention and I- do not intend to be limited to theexact form shown and described, except as set forth in the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. A soft ball comprising a spherical core composed of small particlesof resilient material and a binder pressed together and dried, said corebeing almost as large in diameter as the finished ball,a wrapping ofyarn just suflicient to cover the core, a layer of latex adhering to andcovering the outer wrappings of the yarn and penetrating the wrapping atpoints to unite it to the core,

and an outer cover enclosing the whole and frictlonally engaged by saidlatex covering.

2. A soft ball comprising a spherical core composed of small particlesof resilient material, such as cork, with a small quantity of hog hairmixed with the cork, and a binder pressed together and dried, said corebeing almost as large in diameter as the finished ball, a wrapping ofyarn just sufllcient to cover the core, a layer of latex adhering to andcovering the outer wrappings of the yarn and penetrating the wrapping atpoints to unite it to the core. and an outer cover enclosing the wholeand frictionally engaged by said latex covering.

. ALBERT E. BEGAN.

